A New Gender Test Kit

I just read about a test I've never heard of before. The Pink or Blue Early Gender Test (about $240) is now available online in the U.S. The test claims to be able to determine the gender of a fetus from as early as seven weeks after conception with a drop of the mother's blood sent off to a lab. Now, I wanted to know the sex of my babies, but this kind of freaks me out.

In the article I read about the test, a marketing exec for the company that manufactures it says it's popular among "young moms-to-be who are really excited to find out the sex." But the piece also suggests that parents could use the early info to gender select. And in fact the test comes with a consent form which includes (an unenforceable) clause forbidding the use of the test for gender selection.

The test claims to be 95% accurate, but Dr. Eva Pressman, Director of Obstetrics and Internal Fetal Medicine at the University of Rochester, says "the DNA technology being used has many potential pitfalls" and she suspects the accuracy could be less.

Most importantly, she says, "in the absence of a family history of significant genetic disorders, there's no need to know fetal gender this early, and an ultrasound can usually identify gender by 18 - 20 weeks."

What do you think? Would you consider using a gender test kit to learn the sex early?